By Gary Curreri
Sun Sentinel Correspondent
Mar 04, 2022 11:38 AM
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The FAU High School girls’ golf team captured the Baptist Health Pro-Am at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in Boca Raton. They are, from left, Kayla Bryant, Valentina Marie Guertin, tournament champion Lydia Ko, Angelina Marie Guertin and Amelie Phung. (Shanna Guertin/Courtesy)
Four members of the Florida Atlantic University High School girls’ golf team got to take a day off from school to win the Baptist Health Pro-Am, which kicked off the week at the recent Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in Boca Raton.
The teens, Angelina Marie Guertin, 15; Valentina Marie Guertin, 14; Kayla Bryant, 14; and Amelie Phung, 14, have been playing golf together for about half their lives, and now they are part of the FAU squad that finished in eighth place at the Class 1A state tournament last fall. Following Lydia Ko’s trophy presentation, the quartet was allowed to pose with Ko with her championship trophy.
During the Pro-Am, they were paired for nine holes with LPGA players Stacy Lewis and nine holes with Aditi Ashok. They finished with a 23-under par score of 49.
“It was pretty cool having the ability to have meaningful conversations with the players,” said Bryant, who lives in nearby Boca Woods. “That was pretty awesome and I enjoyed watching with my team.
“It was so cool to be able to do that and bond with each other,” she said. “We all grew closer. My biggest takeaway was watching how much time they take analyzing their shots.”
There were 42 groups of four players paired with LPGA players, which meant 168 sponsored players and 84 LPGA players.
The FAU girls’ golf team was the only group with four juniors where all the rest of the groups were adults, mostly corporate executives. The girls were sponsored by Vistage Florida. Bryant said they found out they were going to play in the Pro-Am the day before the event.
